Then the entity, in the latter portion of the experience in that land, poined in that band who made for what would be termed in the present a prayer band or ladies' aid or circle that made the preparations for those that had separated themselves to become the followers of those peoples. And the entity then was with Simon Peter's mother, wife, the children of Zebedee and their families, as well as Thomas and Luke--for Luke and Thomas were brothers.

In that experience the entity, in the name of Andra, gained throughout. And the entity aided in preparing much of that which came later, in the form of visualizing the paintings on the walls, the drawings that (then) might be carried hither and that became as banners that might be shown. Also (in preparing) the wrappings for the last of the anointing of the body of the Holy One--rather the wrappings than the spices, for Magdalene and Mary and Josie and the mother of the Lord prepared these. The napkins that were about His head and those seals that were later made as raised figures did the entity prepare. The seals of the Holy One, as the seals of the son of David: the pear with the bell, with the pomegranates on either side. [pp 119-121]

The entity then chose to join with the Holy Family and acted in the capacity of the handmaid to the mother, the Child, and waited on Joseph during those sojourns, dwelling by the brooks or the portions where there were wells in the upper portion of the Egyptian land to which they fled. During those periods of the journey the entity ministered, and it was no mean distance for a very young child and a very young mother during such delicate conditions.

And the very ministering of the entity throughout that sojourn, first to the mother and to the Child and later to the aging Joseph, has caused those abilities which the entity finds in the present experience to minister to the needs of those ill in body, in mind. And such applications are those that may be made by the hand--nursing and care--and the consideration of the body as subsisting upon natural, or Nature's, activities in the material world.

In that experience the entity was known as Sophie--or Josie. She was close friends with the Innkeeper, who made preparations for the birth, because of his Essenic associations with the family to which the entity then joined, as part of the activities of the Essenes and the holy ones to protect the child. Through the experience the entity gained. And with the return to Capernaum and when the other children of the mother came, the entity still ministered.

And with the activities of the growing child Jesus, His teachings and His ministerings became all a portion of the entity's experience; and yet she was so disturbed by the activity of others who were close and the manner in which these members of the (Essene) family deserted the teachings because of economic pressures that developed.

In the application of self in the present respecting same, study those portions that have been written, again and again, and there will gradually come into the consciousness an awareness of the entity in the present that in Him is indeed the light that lightens the world and that only in just living His way may we indeed be like Him. Only may the awareness come in being that type of individual, with that purpose, with that attitude which He manifested ever. Though He came to His own and His own received Him not, never--never--did He rail at them. Never did He manifest any other than just gentleness, kindness, brotherly love, patience, with those who were the most unkind.

The entity's activities, then, were even in the preservation of the keeping of the family intact, with the death of Joseph. For this the entity saw; closed the eyes and laid him to rest.

Hence, as the entity reads of those activities there will come more and more an awakening. Read especially the first chapter of John; the first and second and third (epistles) of John. For the second epistle of John (as a letter) was directed to this entity, Josie, by John the beloved. Read then the fourteenth, fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth of John. And reading it, not as rote, ye will find that even He is speaking, even as to thee! [pp 135-136]

A great deal of that leading to the experience, to be sure, is being skipped over,for that came about soon after the return of the Master from the Jordan and His dwelling by the sea, His conversation with Peter, after Andrew had told Peter of the happenings at the Jordan, and there was the wedding in Cana of Galilee.

The girl was a relative of those close to the Mother of Jesus, who prepared the wedding feast--as was the custom in that period and is yet among those of the Jewish faith who adhere to the traditions as well as the custom of those people chosen as the channel because of their purpose with God. The girl to be wed was a daughter of the cousin of Mary, a daughter of a younger sister of Elizabeth, whose name was also Mary. And she was the one spoke of as 'the other Mary,' and not as some have supposed.

The customs required that there be a feast, which was composed of the roasted lamb with the herbs, the breads that had been prepared in the special ways as were the custom and tradition of those who followed close to the faith in Moses' law, Moses' custom, Moses' ordinances. The families of Mary were present, as well as those of the groom. The groom, in the name Roael, was among the sons of Zebedee, being an older brother of James and John who later became close followers of Jesus.

The Master, returning with those who were hangers-on, naturally sought to speak with His mother. Learning of this happening, He too, with the followers, were bid to remain at the feast. Much wine also was part of the custom. The day was what ye would call June third. There were plenty of flowers and things of the field, yet only a part of those things needed, for the custom called for more of the meats prepared with certain herbs and for wines. The day had been fine; the evening was fair; the moon was full. This then brought the activities with the imbibing more and more of wine, more hilarity, and the dance which was in the form of the circles that were a part of the customs not only of that land then but that are in your own land now and then being revived. With these activities, as indicated, the wine ran low. Remember, the sons of Zebedee were among those of the upper class, as would be termed, not the poorer ones. Thence the reason why Mary served or prepared for the relative the feast.

From those happenings that were a portion of her experience upon their return from Egypt--as to how the increase had come in the food when they had been turned aside as they journeyed back towards the Promised Land--Mary felt, knew, was convinced within herself, that here again there might be such an experience, with her son now returning as a man starting upon His mission. For, what was the pronouncement to the mother when Gabriel spoke to Her? What was the happening with Elizabeth when the mother spoke to her?

This might be called a first period of test, for had He not just ten days ago sent Satan away and received ministry from the angels? This had come to be known as hearsay. Hence the natural questioning of the mother-love for the purposes. This son, strange in many ways, had chosen, by the dwelling in the wilderness for the forty days and then the returning to the lowly people, the fishermen from about the country. It brought on the questioning by the mother. [pp 160-162]

In these associations the entity came in close contact with those of the household from which the Master had gone out, becoming associated with, later married to (and by the Master), the sister of the Master--the only sister, who had received education in Greece and Rome through the associations of the family with the sects of the Jews and a portion that favored the Romans.

Hence much of that which had been a portion of the experience of the household of Mary and Joseph was known to the entity. And when the Master was called home, owing to the death of Joseph, the husband of Mary, the entity then first became the closer associated with Jesus, the Master. For owing to the visitations of Jesus to men in other lands, and because of the Roman rule and the changes wrought, the entity--then Romacio--found it necessary to make for the activities that brought a closer understanding.

During those periods the activities were in keeping the Jewish masters or the Jewish rulers coordinating with the activities of the Roman rulers--as in that particular province in which the greater activities were under Pontius Pilate. Hence we find, as would be applied in the present, as is the experience of the entity ever in the present experience, the entity became as one associated with the producer and that produced--or with the capital and the labor or the activities as related to same. These become a natural activity from same; as then many of not only the tax assessors, the tax gatherers but those who judged in the various provinces as to the amounts, as to the abilities, came under the supervision of the entity during those experiences.

Hence we find there were many of those that were the followers, yea the disciples, later called Apostles, who became close friends then in one manner or another of the entity.

It is sometimes judged that most of the disciples were poor, and this was not true. For Zebedee and his sons and Matthew the publican, all of whom were closely associated, were rather well-to-do. Peter and Andrew, of course, were servants or laborers with the sons of Zebedee; but Zebedee was among the wealthy and among those closely associated with those in authority. For as these were a portion of the family of which John, James, Jude, Ruth and all became a part, these were kinsmen and were people that were in authority so far as capital is concerned, as ye would term in the present, and were not poor. While Peter, Andrew, Thomas, Alphaeus were not of the wealthy, all of these were known to the entity, as also was Matthew, as just given, who had been one appointed by an aide of the entity in the experience.

Thus came the closer understanding. For the entity then studied, as it were, those things that prompted the activity of the various sets and sects--the Pharisees, the Sadducees, the Essenes, the influence upon the Roman soldiery as well as the Roman rule, as well as upon the individuals who were set in authority in the varied provinces.

Then the period arrives when the entity is just called to Rome, during that period of the trial or just before the trial, during the Crucifixion, returning to Jerusalem or to those environs of same just the day after this had occured. Thus we find the walk to Emmaus with the disciples, one Luke, the beloved physician, who was both a Roman and a Jew and of those same provinces in the Grecian rule that were under the Roman authorities. Thus we find the entity again physically in association, in touch with, the influence of the Master, Jesus, who became the Christ in the life lived.

Thus we find the entity later, when there was the recall of Pilate because of that which had been brought about, returned to Rome as one who counseled with the Caesars for those very activities and making the changes that bought Philip and Agrippa and the judges that were to judge later when those periods in which Paul, Peter, John, Philip and Stephen were alive. These all became a portion of the experiences of the entity.

Thus we find throughout the entity's experience and the entity's associations with those of what ye call or term the Palestine experience there was no rebellion of those peoples of the land against Roman authority. The rebellion came after those periods, when the entity was recalled to Rome or attempted to keep closer in touch with those who had been called to Rome for the questioning, such as was Paul who, by his own self had brought misinterpreting, misunderstanding; as did Peter and the Church, even John. Here the entity, in the last acts of his intervention, saved that entity (John)--for the followers, for the world--from that death as the others had drawn or had come to. Hence the banishment of John was by the very direct intervention of the entity with those in authority, and the taking away from the churches that had been established in the various places that there might be preserved the records, for same also became a portion of the entity's experience.

There was the passing, then, from the physical activity in Rome during that period when there were just the beginnings of the attempts for the unification of the religious as well as the penal laws or the laws in other lands ruled by the Roman empire. The entity once, just before the interventions, went to the libraries in Alexandria, and there were the attempts to placate any of the destructions that later became the loss to what is now called the Christian world. The entity was at that age or period some sixty years after the Crucifixion--then ninety years or ninety-three years of age at the passing. [pp 165-168]

Thus we find the entity was the daughter of Zebedee and the other Mary. These individuals were not of the rabble, not of the political, not of great spiritual influence or force among the associates of the group. While both were of the Jewish faith, as would be termed today, or the Hebraic faith, they were in that position socially which was above that of the ordinary individuals. For, as we find, these (Mary and Zebedee) were one of the house of Judah and the other of the house or lineage of Levi. Hence the close associations with those of the priesthood. Yet, by and through the associations of Zebedee, there were the contacts with the Essenes and those groups that held rather to a more universality of application of the tenets and teachings of the peoples during the period.

Hence in such an environment we find that the entity 'entered' during that period just after the birth of the Master to Joseph and Mary of the household of Judah. The entity was between James and John--hence during that period when the Master, Jesus, was in Egypt; the place (of birth) being outside of Jerusalem, nigh unto Bethany. Hence we see how that the environs for Naomi in the early portion of its experience in that land were under a varied effect. Here we find something of the conditions that surrounded the activities of those about the entity:

Owing to the circumstances of the group to which Zebedee, the father, belonged, this necessitated the choosing of a following or vocation somewhat in keeping with the forefathers, as the custom ran. Yet the very location of the home of the dwelling belied--or was at variance to--the general customs, owing to the political situations not only as to the Roman rule but because of the edicts that had become rather contrarywise or at variance with--or at cross-purposes with--Herod's ruling then of the portions of Judea that later became known as the Galilean or the Samaritan or a questioned peoples.

The activities of Zebedee required that the purposes and aims be rather carried on through or by agents. Or, to put in the parlance of the present, Zebedee was rather in the fishing business as a wholesaler than being in active service himself. As indicated or given, that as He passed by He saw James and John with their father Zebedee mending their nets, rather were the brothers of Naomi and the father supervising and reasoning with the employees as to their activities. For remember the situations: Mary, the mother, was of the priesthood that was renounced by the cousin, John the Baptist, as known; yet the activities with the Essenes demanded (as would be termed in the present) the keeping secret the meeting of the peoples or the adherents during those cross-purposed edicts of the Roman ruler and Herod. But after the death of Herod the Great, when Herod the Less became in power in the political forces, more consideration was brought or given to those who called their meetings in those various manners. These activities came about, then, when Naomi was nigh unto thirty years of age.

When did the entity first consider its harkening to an echo of itself? Nigh unto its thirtieth year of age. As to the surroundings, we find that the entity's home life was out of the ordinary, even for that period of experience. For it was pulled, as it were, between the teaching or the training of the mother and the activities of the father and the brothers, and yet it had associations in the Roman activities as well as a position in the Jewish faith or Jewish activity. Hence we find this as a description of the body: One educated in the schools of those that were the teachers from Carmel, yet associated with those activities of the people about the temple and those who dedicated themselves to the service that was to bring those activities which, to the world today, find themselves exemplified in many ways. In one area, the entity was one of the sisters of 'orders' known as the Catholic--or the Church--in the present; in the other, she was of the orthodox activities of the 'sisters of mercy' among certain Jewish sects. These, then, may give the conditions of the activity in which the entity, Naomi, in its teen years found itself: pulled between the holy activities of the Essenes and the dedicating of self to the faith of the fathers.

When there first began those activities among John's teachings, we find the entity then joined rather with those of the Essene group, for John first taught that the women who chose might dedicate their lives to a specific service. Hence not only the brothers but those employed by the brothers (Peter, Andrew and Judas--not Iscariot) joined in the activities. These were of the fisherfolk who aided in establishing the teachings in and among the people, that held to both the old and the new environs.

The body then was fair, with gray eyes and dark hair, but brown in its tinge. In mien the body was gentle, and a good cook, a good housekeeper, a wonderful singer, and given to meditations. Not until after those teachings of Master, that made for the establishing more of what would be in the present called 'home' alters, did the entity wed, being then thirty and four years of age. And it was among the groups in Cana when the wedding feast was held that the associations were made which culminated in the home ties for the entity, making for the reconciliation between Mary and Martha and Lazarus also, and the closer association with Elizabeth, the mother of John. In the entity's home, then, did Elizabeth--of its own kinspeople--dwell, during those portions of its activity among the holy women who had dedicated their lives, their bodies, their purposes, their aims, to those changed teachings between John the forerunner and the Master, Jesus. The entity in those environs, then, made for its development during those experiences in the earth during that period.

As to the various activities to which the entity was joined during the period, that make for or give experiences in the present activity as to the entity's purpose, we find: There is exhibited much of that which was experienced in those days, of oft being seen and not heard, yet keeping that which was given as an example of the women of the period, 'pondering oft in the heart' that they had seen and heard. In making application of the experience in the present: Hold fast to that thou hast purposed, even then, in thy heart of hearts, in thy soul, that as He gave to thee as direct through the associations with those about the entity in the visits, in the passage of activity: 'Abide in me and I in thee, and ye in me--ask and it shall be given thee.'

As to the activities also as we have given and intimated through these channels, whether John (the beloved, Naomi's brother) would again join in those activities in the earth, we find: The entity, then, by body, by mind, by position, by soul's development, will be joined nigh unto those experiences with those bodies through which and to which the entity John (the brother) may come and be known among men. [pp 171-174]

In giving the experiences of the entity in the earth plane as Martha, the sister of Peter's wife's mother, it would be well that much of the happenings or history of the times be included, so that there may be the more perfect understanding of the conditions and as to how and why urges from that experience apply in the experience of the entity in the present. As is understood by many, there had been long a looking forward to or for the advent of the promised Messiah into the earth and there had been those various groups through one channel or another who had banded together to study the material which was handed down through the varied groups in the day and period.

Here we find there had been, for the mother of Martha, an experience of coming in touch with Judy, who had been the first of women appointed as the head of the Essenes group to have the experience of having 'voices,' which would be called in the present experiences 'communications' with the influences which had been a part of man's experience from the beginning, such as that the divine within man heard the experiences of those forces outside of man and communicated in voices, in dreams, in signs and symbols which had become a portion of the experience.

When the children of Martha's mother, Sophia, were in those periods of development these (communications) had become a part of what would be called today a 'play-experience' for the entity Martha. For Peter's wife's mother was many years the senior of Martha, but the coming of John and the birth of Jesus and the dispensation of Jesus and John in Egypt all had an impression or imprint upon the mind of the entity Martha, who builded in her own mind how the king and how the announcer of the king should be dressed (as this had been a part of the experiences of the entity in other periods and thus the choice of things in this direction).

Then there came those great changes in the life experience of Martha, for one among those of the rulers of the synagogue sought the entity in marriage and through the individuals who made these arrangements the entity was espoused to Nicodemus. Through his activities and personality, Martha learned first of what had happened to the peoples in the homes of John the Baptist and of Mary and Joseph and Jesus. Then when there were later the experiences of those entering into activities and then when the message was given out that Martha's older sister had been healed from a terrible fever by this man Jesus, this brought about great changes in Nicodemus and Martha, as they had to do with the temple and the service of the high priest. Martha began the weaving of the robe that became as a part of the equipment the Master had. Thus the robe was made especially for the Master. In color it was not as the robe of the priest, but woven in the one piece with the hole in the top through which the head was to be placed, and then over the body so that with the cords it was bound about the waist.

This robe Nicodemus presented then to the Master, Jesus, after the healing of the widow of Nain's son, who was a relative of Nicodemus. In the activities, then, when Nicodemus went to the Master by night and there became those discussions in the home, for Nicodemus and Martha there began the communion as man and wife rather than man and his chattel of his servant. They were more on a basis of equality, not in the same proportions which were established a bit later by some of the rulers from the Roman land but more in keeping with the happenings which had brought about the activities in the Essene group.

Though Martha was an Essene, Nicodemus never accepted completely the tenets of the teaching of the Essenes group. These were a part of the principles and applications of Martha. The acquaintanceships, the friendships, which were established between Mary, Elizabeth and the other Mary all are parts of the experience, and because of the position of Martha throughout those activities she was considered rather one of the leaders--or one to whom others made appeal to have positions or conditions set in motion so that there was given more concessions to the Holy Women who followed Jesus from place to place when there were those periods of His Palestine ministry.

The only differences which arose were with Martha and Mary in the household of Lazarus, Martha and Mary. Because of conditions there from which Mary (Magdalene) had returned, from the houses which were a portion of her activity in various cities, questions as to morality arose. And yet, after there were the healings and after it was discovered how she out of whom seven devils were cast became changed and how there were even changes then and there, we find there was a greater working together with the activities of Mary, Martha, Lazarus and Mary the mother of Jesus, Elijah and many of those others, including John and Mark's mother. These were parts of the experience of the entity.

The entity stood, as indicated by the accomplishments of the robe from Nicodemus, as one particularly honored even by the Master. During the periods of activity, during the missions after the Crucifixion and Resurrection of the Master, the entity Martha gathered with those in the upper room looking for the promise of the coming of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. This, too, became a apart of the activities. For the entity later was among those who aided Stephen and Philip, as well as others of the various lands. For it was with these that the entity first became acquainted with Luke and Lucius, who later became heads of various organizations in other portions. These acquaintances were then rather as counsel from those to whom Luke, Lucius, Mark as the younger of the Disciples (not Apostles but younger of the Disciples) went for counsel. For the entity was one acquainted with the law. The entity Martha taught the law to the young ones, the children who sought knowledge.

The entity had its own family--two sons and one daughter. These became ministers in the church in Antioch, aiding the people who worked with Barnabas; and it is mentioned that one, Theopolus, learned from the entity Sylvanus; and those who labored in the church in Jerusalem with John, James, Peter and the others, as a child. As a child, this one was known as Thaddeus. The daughter was wed to one of the companions of Paul, Silas, who was engaged in a portion of the activities with Paul.

As to the activities of the entity, then: The abilities are indicated in weaving, in color. The color of the robe was pearl-gray, as would be called now, with selvage woven around the neck, as well as that upon the edge, as over the shoulder and to the bottom portion of same; no bells, no pomegranates, but those which are woven in such a manner that into the selvage portion of the bottom were woven the Thummin and the Urim. These were as the balance in which judgments were passed by the priest. But these were woven not placed, upon the top of same. Neither were there jewels set in same.

With the persecution, the entity withdrew more and more because of its associations with those in authority, but its home became more and more a place of refuge and help for all of the young of the church. The entity lived to be an elderly person, something like seventy-nine years of age in the experience, and was not among those ever beaten or placed in jail, though persecuted by only the Romans, feared by those of her own peoples. [pp 185-188]